April 27, 2005

Canseco may have to kiss his Rolls Royce goodbye (registration required.): Jose & Ozzie Canseco must pony up a cool million in damages to two men who claim they were assaulted in a bar by the twins. Jose Canseco, who's wealth is estimated at $1.8M, will pay the bulk of the damages. Even though he received $500K for his tell-all book and another $300K for appearing on "The Surreal Life," Canseco claims that he only has $43K in the bank thanks to his lavish lifestyle.

When he was in Chicago for his book signing(Right after he testified) He would'nt so much as take his sunglasses off(indoors), or get off the cell phone long enough to look you in the face.Good ridance! Let's just hope he does'nt take up coaching Little League!

Financial awards in civil trials and child support cases are often - and by often, I mean nearly always - based upon the defendant/respondent's ability to pay, not the reality of the situation. Punitive awards in civil trials are used to deter the same conduct from occuring again. The reality is that Canseco needed a punishment and the plainitff needed to be compensated for his injury. Apparently both happened. Canseco obviously inflamed the jury.

"While it took less than 10 minutes to determine Ozzie Canseco has no money, lawyers spent hours arguing over how much Jose Canseco is really worth..." What, did they tell Ozzie show us your pockets are empty? "Ozzie Canseco said he received $5,000 from the show after taping a segment in which he impersonates his brother"...."Ozzie, who works as his brother's personal trainer" I almost kind of started feeling bad for Ozzie's dumb ass.

Punitive awards in civil trials are used to deter the same conduct from occuring again. The reality is that Canseco needed a punishment and the plainitff needed to be compensated for his injury. BZZZT! Punishment is not the goal of a civil trial - that belongs in the criminal courts. Punitive awards are meant to compensate a victim for his/her losses. Do you believe these two men lost a million dollars for their broken nose, their busted lip? I don't doubt that Canseco was an ass during the trial; he seems to excel at such behavior. But ordering a defendant to pay close to a million dollars for these injuries simply because he lives extravagantly, or even because he pissed off the jury, strikes me as unjust. I'm not defending Jose and his brother. There's a good bet they were strutting into the situation like a couple of peacocks. But I'd also bet these two guys suffered a lot of injuries dreaming about the big payday coming their way after pursuing a washed-up, burned-out former baseball star and his also-ran twin brother.

From here: Punitive damages are intended to punish the defendant and to discourage the conduct of the type the defendant engaged in. Okay, I'm the asshole. I'll do my research first next time, honest I will.